Twenty minutes later, the three were at Santa Barbara Shopping Center; in front of the store the little girl had been taken from. Shawn looked around, but knew it wasn’t any good. Too many people were passing by. It was a couple days before Christmas, after all.
“There’s too many people here. I can’t get a fix on the kidnapper or the girl,” Shawn said in disappointment.
“Come on, we can get more clues back at the station. I hate the mall during Christmas,” Lassiter said.
Juliet looked around sadly. Shawn and Lassiter were right, it was crowded. If any clues had been left, they were gone now, no doubt. She walked behind them out to the car.
Shawn looked around as they walked out and spotted something shiny nearby. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was a necklace. His mind flashed back to the picture of Selena, the little girl, and remembered he saw the same necklace on her. Picking it up, he turned it over to find an engraving. To our darling Selena. Love, Mom and Dad.
“Jules! Lassie! I found her necklace!” Shawn shouted. The detectives were almost to the car when they heard him.
They both ran back and examined the necklace closely. Lassiter looked up to see four cameras on the roof, pointing toward them.
“Let’s go back inside and find the footage from those cameras. Maybe we can get a make and model of the car they took off in,” He said, pointing up at the cameras.
They did just that, only stopping long enough for Shawn to grab a churro from Churros and More (much to Lassiter’s annoyance). Shawn had defended himself, saying he had only had a piece of pineapple, that was mostly spit out when he choked on the phone earlier.
Lagging behind, it didn’t take the faux psychic long to get separated from Juliet and Lassiter. He had stopped to tie his shoe with the churro hanging from his mouth. It fell, making him sigh and going back for another one. When he looked back, he couldn’t see hide nor hair of his girlfriend or the lanky detective.
“Uh, oh. Gotta find the security office,” he said to himself with a new, very hot churro burning his hand.
He rounded a corner, thinking it was the right way, when a sharp pain in the back of his head made him black out. His still form was then dragged out to a waiting car near the cargo doors. Shawn’s churro lay where he fell, still steaming from the fryer.
Juliet and Lassiter were inside the security room, looking over the last couple of hours of video from the outside. Juliet just happened to look over to the live feed and gasped.
“Carlton, look!” she cried, pointing at the screen that showed the outside doors.
Lassiter looked over to see Shawn being dragged into a vehicle and the car speeding off.
“Oh for the love of…come on, O’Hara, let’s go. You,” he turned to the security guard, “Rewind that and get the license plate number off of that car. Call it in to the SBPD and tell them it’s for Detective Lassiter. Got it?”
The guard nodded and began to back the video up while Juliet and Lassiter ran out to the Crown Vic.
“How many times can your boyfriend get in trouble, O’Hara?” Lassiter complained as they sped out of the parking lot a moment later.
“Let’s just find him and the person who has him,” Juliet said, shaking her head.
“Knowing Spencer’s luck, it’ll be the same people who took that little girl,” Lassiter said, a little softer. He knew when to not overstep his bounds when it came to his partner and her boyfriend.
Juliet nodded and called in the kidnapping, making sure all units were on the lookout of a black or gray sedan.
‘Please be okay, Shawn,’ she silently begged.
In a remote location an hour later, Shawn snapped awake. His head pounded. When he tried to reach up, he found his was tied up tight. He felt the tingling in his feet, telling him the ropes were too tight around his ankles.
Groggily, he looked over, his eyes adjusting to the light that shone above him. About ten feet away was Selena, sporting a black eye and a bloody lip. She was awake and glancing around frantically.
Carefully, Shawn looked right and left, seeing that they were alone, for the moment. He wasn’t sure where the kidnappers were, but he didn’t want to hang around long enough to find out what they had planned for him.
“Psst, Selena,” he whispered. The girl looked at him curiously.
“You’re awake! How do you know my name?” she asked.
“I’m a psychic detective. I was hired by the police to find you,” he said.
“I don’t believe in psychics, but if you were hired to find me, you succeeded,” Selena said, sounding just like her mom.
“Do you know who has us?” Shawn asked.
“I thought you were psychic?” Selena said sarcastically.
“My abilities are out of order for the moment due to a whack on my delicious head. Just answer the question,” Shawn replied.
“The Chinese Mafia. Just before I was born, my parents were involved in some shady deals with them. I guess these guys wanted me in exchange for money owed, so my parents fled to where we live now. We thought they would never find us, but looks like we were sadly mistaken,” Selena explained.
“I thought you were nine?” Shawn asked.
“Yeah, but I’m in college courses. I’m apparently a super genius. Before you woke up, I was figuring out the trajectory of a bullet if it were to go awry and ricochet off the building.”
“Why?” Shawn asked.
“Because,” came a man’s voice, “that’s how we’re going to kill the both of you. Hello, Mr. Spencer. I am Jacob Lee. I hope you enjoy your accommodations for the remainder of the evening.”
“I won’t be here that long, Jack,” Shawn spat.
“What makes you think you can escape? That one lesson you had three years ago? We know a lot about you, Mr. Spencer. I would suggest you get comfortable. As for you, Selena, you will figure out that formula,” Jacob turned to the girl and slapped her across the face. Fresh blood dripped down her lip.
“You Son of a…” Shawn started, but heard a click. He saw that another member had a gun pointed toward Selena’s skull.